Learning Rhino software

[Broomstick]

I have been using SketchUp for 3D modeling and computer drawing but it's far from perfect. Between its limitations and my spouse's insistence on using Rhino for our computer controlled router, I am learning new software. Among other things, I'm working on being able to draw more organic forms than before. Thus, behold the carapace!



I'm trying to think of something to do next.

[salm]

I'm trying to think of something to do next.

Most 3D software comes with a bunch of official tutorials usually downloadable from the company website or under the Help icon in the menu bar.
Not sure about Rhino but these tutorials tend to be the best starting point to a decent understanding of the program.

[Broomstick]

I have them and I've done them - I meant I'm looking for my next self-directed project, not that I was having trouble learning the software. At this point I need to practice using it more than anything else.

[Zaune]

Hmmm... How do you feel about a fairly simple sketch of a spacecraft? I'll pay you for your time if you want.

[Broomstick]

Any preferences on the spacecraft? Actual one that has existed, out of a particular novel, some specification?

[Zaune]

It's from my current fanfic project. You can find the whole thing in User Fiction, although unless you're a fan of Kerbal Space Program it may not make a lot of sense.

A basic description is as follows:

A long, thick cylinder with five large nuclear rocket motors at one end, a large gravity wheel at approximately midships and a large airlock and some cockpit windows at the bows. Immediately below the airlock is a cylindrical hatch approximately 1.5 metres across; depending on scale this should have black and yellow safety markings around it. There are four large radiators just behind the gravity wheel and a half-dozen solar panel arrays at bow and stern. There's a ventral airlock large enough to admit an SSTO spaceplane about the size of a Beechcraft Bonanza or similar. Overall length of the spacecraft is about three hundred metres.

Other than that, the general aesthetic should be very hard-SF; make it look like the kind of thing that people in 1969 thought we'd be building by 2020.

[Broomstick]

I've heard of the Kerbal space program

I'll will get back to you shortly.

[salm]

Make the carpace 3D. That should provide a nice workshop for different kinds of organic shapes with doubly-curved surfaces.
It also provieds opportunity to experiment with harder and softer creases at the connecting edges fo the individual pannels.

After that turn it into cyborg turtle with some sort of electronical device (laser gun, loudspeakers or something like that ) grown into the shell. That lets you practice transitions between organic and hard surface structures which can be quite a challenge.

[Broomstick]

It turned out that making a rocket-ship shape was a bit of a challenge, but I think I've got the basics down now. Part of the problem is that there are so damn many controls and commands in this software. It's like going from a 2 octave toy keyboard to a full church organ.

Not exactly what Zaune was looking for, but it's a start.



The 3D turtle carapace will be along after the space ships. Then maybe I'll try cyborgs

[Zaune]

Those look pretty cool, actually. Though the KSP player in me can't help thinking the one on the right needs more struts.

[Broomstick]

Working on it!

And don't you mean "more boosters"?

[Zaune]

Possibly both, now you mention it. The joints between components in the unmodded game aren't very strong; larger rockets have a tendency towards 'snaking' in-flight, with potentially unfortunate consequences, if you don't slap on several exterior struts to hold them rigid.

[Broomstick]

Working out how to do struts and attach objects to each other:



And, oh yes, multiples of rocket engines. Because you can't have too many engines in the Kerbal Space Program!

[Zaune]

Heh. Would you like a copy of the game as part payment?

[Broomstick]

I think my spouse might like that, he's getting rather intrigued: "What are those green guys you keep googling and why are some of them screaming...?"